Niger Delta Militants, Biafra agitators and kidnappers cannot hold us to ransome

It is one year today since the All Progressives Congress (APC) took the centre stage in Abuja, to terminate the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) occupation of the Presidency. It has also been one year of trials and attempting to do things differently. The man in the centre of it all, President Muhammadu Buhari took time off his tight schedule to speak to some editors last Thursday on his experience so far in the seat of power. 

Looking at the last one year, how would you assess what has happened in terms of your expectations when you took office, the challenges you met and the progress made or lack of it?
I am sure you will recall that during our campaign, we identified three problems for our country. First, was security –the situation especially in the northeast then. Second, was the economy – unemployment, and third was corruption. I am sure you can recall that these were what we identified. In the northeast, when we came in, Boko Haram occupied 14 local governments and they had hoisted their flags and called the areas their Caliphate. Today, Boko Haram is not holding any local government, but they have progressed to using IEDs (improvised explosive devices) on softer targets – people in mosques, churches, market places, motor parks, and killing school children.  So I think we have made substantial progress in that area. If you know anybody living in Maiduguri or Yobe, he or she will tell that people are going back to their homes, those who moved to Kano, Kaduna or even here in Abuja are now moving back and they are trying to continue with their lives.

On the economy, again we were unlucky. We are a mono-economy and everybody is dependent on oil revenue. The oil price collapsed and we were exposed. From 1999 to 2014, the average price of Nigerian crude that was sold was $100 per barrel, but when we came in, it plummeted to about $30 per barrel and now it is between $40 and $50 per barrel. At some stage, I got the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria to give me a list of the things we have been spending our foreign exchange on and it showed food items such as tomato purée, grains, rice, wheat and even toothpicks. I didn’t believe it and I still don’t believe it because if he said we were building so many factories, buying essential raw materials and spare parts machineries, I would have believed it. But to show me that what we were consuming were majorly just food items? I believe about 60 per cent of Nigerians from all parts of the country eat what they produce because they cannot afford to buy foreign food.

So, what was happening was that people, who had plenty of naira, just filled the papers that they were importing food, and would be given foreign exchange and they go and invest the money outside in whatever form. My belief was strengthened when we got into trouble about the import of petroleum products. We conducted a survey and we found out that one-third of what Nigerian marketers claimed to be bringing in, they were not bringing it in. They were just signing the papers and taking the money out. So people were doing the same thing with food products. But I think subsequently when we get to the court with some people, you will hear more about it.

The third one was on corruption, I would speak about that in two days’ time (today) and also on subsequent attempts to prosecute where we have found evidence; about where the monies have gone and the different banks either here or outside the country, we would let you know.

We know that your party did not support the idea of a National Conference when it was held, but one year after, it is like the clamour is rising again given some of the challenges, such as security and the economy, and people say all these issues were addressed by the National Conference report. Would you have a rethink by going back to see what is good in that report?

No, I don’t want to tell different stories. I advised against the issue of National Conference. You would recall that ASUU was on strike then for almost nine months. The teachers in the tertiary institutions were on strike for more than a year, yet that government had about N9billion to organise that meeting (National Conference) and some (members) were complaining that they hadn’t even been paid. I never liked the priority of that government on that particular issue, because it meant that what the National Assembly could have handled was handed to the Conference, while the more important job of keeping our children in schools was abandoned. That is why I haven’t even bothered to read it or ask for a briefing on it and I want it to go into the so-called archives.http://guardian.ng/